Wilkes-Barre teacher ‘perfects’ AP Calculus
Create a theorem that has aspiration, inspiration, hard work, dedication and enormous success, and it would equate to Gerald Gillis.
The College Board gives it a perfect score, like the ones recorded by the vast majority of Gillis’ students on the board’s Advanced Placement Calculus Exam.
So impressed is the board with Gillis that it sent a team to his classroom at Coughlin High School in Wilkes-Barre Area SD to shoot an online training video for other AP Calculus teachers.
The video is just the latest. The board has been using Gillis for years as an exam reader and consultant.
That’s because Gillis has clearly developed a formula for student success. All 11 of his students who took the 2015-16 AP Calculus Exam scored perfect 5s. All of his students also had perfect scores from the 2010-11 through the 2013-14 school years. And in years when his students don’t run the table, it’s usually, like the 2014-15 exam, when just one student got a 4 – still a highly impressive score.
Gillis is proud of his students’ success on the exam, but like many teachers he says the test is only one measurement. He points instead to students who are learning skills that will help them in whatever path they pursue in life, whether calculus-related or not.
